SERIES INFO

Friday, March 12 -- vs. Radford (Williard Stadium, High Point, N.C.), 4 p.m.
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Saturday, March 13 -- vs. Radford (Williard Stadium, High Point, N.C.), 1 p.m.
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Saturday, March 13 -- vs. Radford (Williard Stadium, High Point, N.C.), Approx. 4:30 p.m.
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The High Point University baseball team (5-4, 3-0 Big South) continues its homestand to start the season with a three-game series against Radford (4-7, 0-3 Big South) this weekend. The series begins on Friday (March 12) at 4 p.m. and continues Saturday (March 13) with a doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m.
 

Matchup History

• High Point and Radford have played each other 66 times heading into Friday, with the Panthers holding a 37-29 advantage in the series.
• HPU only leads by two games at home and on the road while boasting a 6-2 advantage in neutral-site games.
• The series has been even as of late, splitting the last 10 games at five wins each.
• The two teams last met in the 2019 Big South Tournament, with the Purple and White picking up the victory 6-4 after dropping the 2019 season series two games to one.

 

Across the Diamond

• Radford is 4-7 on the season and got off to a promising start, winning four of its first six games.
• Things have gone downhill for the Highlanders since, dropping each of their last five games. Radford opened conference play last weekend against arguably the hottest team in the Big South to start the year, losing all three to USC Upstate.
• Radford currently leads the conference in triples, hitting six three-baggers in its first 11 games, one off the national lead to enter the weekend in fifth in all of Division I.
• The Highlanders' pitching staff also leads the conference in a more dubious category, entering Friday's game tops in the Big South and 18th in the country in batters hit.
• Sean Cheely is the only Highlander hitting above .300 on the year, entering Friday's game with a .342 batting average. He also leads the team in hits (13), doubles (2), triples (2), and has one of Radford's two home runs.
• Projected Friday starter Greg Duncan has logged the most innings on the mound for Radford, coming in with 17.1 innings pitched in three starts. He has an era of 4.15, allowing eight earned runs on 21 hits with 17 strikeouts.
• Austin Kaplan is a strong arm out of the bullpen for the Highlanders and is yet to allow an earned run while giving up just two hits, both doubles, in six innings of action.

 

Panther Notes

Last Time Out

High Point had a strong start to conference play, picking up a weekend sweep of UNC Asheville. The teams played a doubleheader on Saturday (March 6), with HPU taking the games 8-2 and 12-6 while the Panthers completed the sweep on Sunday (March 7) with an 11-10 victory. 
 

How Sweep it is

Last weekend's sweep of Asheville is the first weekend sweep for the Purple and White since opening weekend of the 2020 season against Lafayette. It's the first sweep to start conference play since taking three games against Asheville to open Big South action in 2016.
 

Home Run Parade

The Panthers held a home run parade in the first game of the doubleheader, trotting around to home four times in the contest after not hitting one heading into the weekend. It's the most homers High Point has hit in a single game since mashing five out of the park at Gardner-Webb on April 14, 2018.
 

Deja Vu

Brady Pearre had two of the home runs on Saturday, becoming the first member of the Purple and White to hit multiple home runs in the same game since….Pearre hit two on….March 6, 2020, exactly one year to the day that he did it against Asheville.
 

Not so Lyttle

Graduate student Grey Lyttle finds himself atop the  Big South in total strikeouts after three starts with 24 on the season, including a season-high nine in last Saturday's start. He's racked up the 24 Ks and issued only three walks for a conference-best 8.00 strikeout to walk ratio that puts him 51st nationally, while his 24 strikeouts are the 35th-most in the country.
 

WHIP it Real Good

HPU is second in the Big South in WHIP entering Friday, allowing just 1.26 walks and hits each inning pitched, second only to USC Upstate.
 

Super Sam

Sam Zayicek had a strong end to the series, going 6-9 in the final two games of the series. He drove in three runs in each game with a total of four extra-base hits. The redshirt sophomore had a double and a triple in game two of the doubleheader on Saturday before racking up a career-high four hits with two doubles on Sunday.
 

Getting Offensive

High Point put up 31 runs in the three games against UNC Asheville for the most runs in a weekend series in program history since scoring 32 on Presbyterian in a sweep of the Blue Hose in 2015.
 

Went Streaking

Joe Johnson's career-long hitting streak finally came to a close on Sunday. He was unable to record a hit in his four at bats, stopping the streak at eight games this season and 15 in a row dating back to Feb. 25, 2020.
 

Short-Outing Save

While Johnson's hitting streak may have come to an end on Sunday, he made his pitching debut this season in the game, coming in from left field to get the final out of the game. He needed only two pitches to induce the groundout to short to secure the sweep and pick up his second career save.
 

Limiting the Hitting

The Panthers only give up 6.97 hits per nine innings, the best mark in the Big South and 35th-best in the nation. High Point has held opponents to five or fewer hits three times and has only allowed double digits once.
 

What Happened to Friyay?

Friday has been a rough day for the Panthers this year, with all three Fridays HPU has been scheduled to play affected by schedule changes. The Purple and White's season-opener on Feb. 19 was moved from Williard Stadium to Truist Point and the following week's Friday game was postponed after an issue with the umpires. Most recently, High Point was scheduled to play Winthrop last week, but COVID-19 protocols postponed that series and Friday game before the series with Asheville began on Saturday.
 

Making the Sacrifice

High Point has hit eight sacrifice flies this season, the second-most in the Big South and 10th-most in the country. Individually, Cole Singsank has hit two, tied for the conference lead and for 17th in the nation.
 

Fielding Cleanly

High Point is currently second in the Big South in fielding percentage with a mark of .978, good for 54th in the country. After committing three errors in the first two games, the Panthers allowed just one until committing three in game two of Saturday's doubleheader. The Purple and White's total of seven errors committed on the season is second in the Big South and the Panthers are one of just three teams to have single-digit errors on the season still.
 

It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Last weekend marked the beginning of the Big South portion of the Panthers' schedule, the first three-game series out of 40 games that will be played among conference opponents this year - the most Big South games the conference has played in a single season.
 

Starting the Carr

Freshman Peyton Carr had quite the weekend against UNCG, starting all three games at third and picking up five hits in the series. He continued that against Asheville with five more hits against the Bulldogs and four total RBIs, including his first career home run in game one of Saturday's doubleheader. Carr has recorded a hit in each game of the last two series, entering Friday with a team-long active hitting streak of six games.
 

Keeping it Close

Seven of High Point's nine games this season have been decided by two runs or less. HPU has been in the game until the final pitch in each of its four losses, with the tying run either at the plate or on base in all four games. The stretch of six two-run-or-fewer games to open the year is the longest stretch of two-run or closer games in HPU's Division I history to start a season.
 

Doubling Down

The Panthers are scheduled to play in 13 doubleheaders this season, the most in their Division I program history and the most since the Purple and White played two 11 times in 2002.
 

It's a Steal

HPU stole a total of five bases in the second game of the doubleheader with UNCG, the most since the Purple and White swiped five against Charleston Southern on March 31, 2019. The team averages 1.44 stolen bases each game so far this season, third in the conference and 65th in the country. 
 
 
Up Next: High Point has its first midweek game of the season on Tuesday (March 16) when Longwood comes to town for a conference matchup and first of five between the Panthers and Lancers.